Thursday, March 26, 2009
CITIZENS TO FILE PETITION FOR A CHILD-SAFE LIBRARY
WEST BEND, WI: Citizens in West Bend, and Washington County are signing petitions to request that the library board take a roll call vote to adopt policies to make the library child-safe and family-friendly. The petition includes 5 policies that the citizens want considered separately, and voted on separately for the public record.
“While much of this debate has focused on individual books, we want the library board to state on the record whether they believe that pornographic books should be in the youth sections of the library.” Ginny Maziarka said. “Filling out forms and arguing about whether or not a book meets some vague collection development and selection policy is pointless. We want to know if the library board will vote for or against targeting youth with pornography.”
The petition requests the board take a roll call vote on the following five issues:
1. Reclassification of Youth-Targeted Pornographic Books into the adult section of the library.
2. Visual identification of explicit material with a parental advisory.
3. Restrict Library-generated Online Sexual Content.
4. Balanced Literature on Controversial Issues including homosexuality.
5. Children's Internet Protection – require the libraries to implement technology protection to protect minors from internet porn on public computers in accordance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act.
Petitions are being signed at the public meeting tonight at Silverbrook Middle School, and can also be downloaded here
For more information call 1-866-910-2840 or visit http://wissup.blogspot.com.
1 comment:
You're probably sick of me, but I am hoping to give you a look into the reality of what these demands look like to a library. I’m sure you won’t agree with a lot of what I’m saying, but I’m trying to give you the library perspective, so do with it what you will.
"1. Reclassification of Youth-Targeted Pornographic Books into the adult section of the library."
The reason these books are "targeted" at teens is because teens are at a stage in life where their curiosity and need for information about sex are very high. If the books are not in the teen section of the library, who are they helping? The reality is, teens have sex, and teens who are personally dealing with issues related to sexual decisions, sexual health, and the consequences of sex can benefit from these materials being readily available.
The fact is, unless we're talking about pornography that is legally classified as such, there is really no way to ensure that every book that any person could possibly see as pornographic gets taken out of the young adult section. Any policy the board tries to put into place for the future would pretty much be unenforceable, because no librarian can read the content of every book, and also because pornography is a subjective term.
“2. Visual identification of explicit material with a parental advisory.”
Again, whose definition of “explicit”? Also, if we’re talking about books that only have a short passage of explicit material, how in the world are the librarians supposed to know the entire contents of every book? It's impossible, and a policy to this effect would also be completely unenforceable.
“3. Restrict Library-generated Online Sexual Content.”
Are you talking about the “Out of the Closet” booklist or something else?
“4. Balanced Literature on Controversial Issues including homosexuality.”
I guess you already know my view on this one, but I will reiterate one thing. From a LIBRARY standpoint (at least my library), most literature is from a heterosexual viewpoint, and including books from a homosexual viewpoint IS the balance. As for teens, it’s to show questioning or self-identified LGBT teens that other people have felt how they feel, that they’re not the only one.
“5. Children's Internet Protection – require the libraries to implement technology protection to protect minors from internet porn on public computers in accordance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act.”
Now, this one you may actually have a shot at. A lot of libraries do filter their children’s computers if they have dedicated stations just for kids. However, if kids use the same computers as adults, I doubt the board will decide to filter. I know our board did discuss it when CIPA came out, but we simply couldn’t justify filtering when it’s mostly adults over 18 who use our computers.
What we do is require parents to be physically with the kids if they’re under 7th grade, and between 7th grade and age 17, parents have to sign a form for their kids to use the internet, which we explain is unfiltered. If the parents do not want their kids using the unfiltered internet on their own, the kids can still use it with the parents right next to them. That was our compromise, which still leaves it up to the parents whether or not their kid can use the internet.
And the reason that we do need parents consent for this, and not for books in the teen section is because there is true pornography online, actual, legally defined pornography that someone would have to be 18 or 21 to purchase if it were in print. This is unlike the books in the teen section which are not defined as pornographic, and that anyone of any age could walk into the bookstore and buy.
Just a librarian’s perspective.
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